Elk, Owls & Improvised Bits

Just a quick post to recommend a Stockholm-based duo who improvise audiovisually with various 8-bit tools and electronics: Elk + Owl. Apart from some Nintendo handhelds, they use an electronic wind instrument which gives the music a lot of life, compared to many other low-bit improvisations. The music is downtempo and quite floaty, sort of the opposite to the majority of static sounding hyper-pop chip-eti-hop non stop. They told me they’ve put a lot of effort in editing the jams down to ‘consumable portions’, which not everybody succeeds with.

Another good 8-bit improviser is 21-year old Henry Homesweet who’s been posting plenty of nice Gameboy jams at his youtube-channel. These are much more techno/dub-oriented than the pop-music he made a couple of years ago. Great GBA FM-wobbles and boinks. I had the pleasure of seeing several of his live gigs during the Chiptune Alliance tour last year and I can vouch for that the arrangements are not very pre-determined. Technically, I suppose this is more like DJing since he manipulates pre-sequenced bits. Still, it’s not all that easy to tell when one song starts and the other one stops.